Bagbin apologises to MPs over errors on attendance list when e-levy was approved

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Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin has apologised to parliamentarians over the errors that occurred on the votes and proceedings of the House for Tuesday’s sitting.

This was at a time the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta presented the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-levy) to the House, seeking an approval.

Eight members of the Minority side including Elizabeth Agyare; Techiman North, Cletus Avoka; Bimbilla among others were marked absent despite their presence.

Following the development, the Minority accused the clerks on being partisan, adding they have been compromised in the discharge of their duties.

But Mr Bagbin on Thursday after the concerns were raised admitted the errors did occur and took ultimate responsibility for it.

He said that the clerk is only a civil servant and directed that claims that the clerk is partisan be deleted from the records.

“If you look at the attendance book definitely, there are errors, I will take responsibility and apologise to members for these errors,” he said.

Mr Bagbin further indicated that there are no perfect votes and proceedings or an official report capturing Parliamentary debate, anywhere in the world.

The errors, he said, are anticipated to occur hence, provisions have been made to correct them.

He, however, commended the Minority MPs for raising the issue for the necessary corrections to be made.

“There are no votes and proceedings anywhere that are perfects. The draft is brought to the house giving an opportunity to members to right the wrongs that they have been captured on the votes and proceedings.

“So rightly you have come and corrected, what you have done is right, we will go through properly and correct the errors,” he admitted.